It is the former prime minister's wife's first autobiography and its publication has added to increasing pressure Gordon Brown, who is also facing revelations about his leadership in memoirs by John Prescott and Lord Levy.

Blair's autobiography deals with life on both sides of the front door of 10 Downing Street, from her pregnancies and miscarriage to dealing with the royal family and her take on the relationship between her husband and Brown.

On Gordon Brown

In interviews promoting her autobiography, Blair says her husband would have left office before the 2005 election if Brown had supported Tony Blair's public service reforms. She accused Brown of "rattling the keys above his head", so Blair decided to stay on and finish his programme of reforms.

Her memoirs also reveal the "stormy discussions" between Brown and Blair over who would take over from John Smith after his death in 1994. She wrote that as her husband left for a meeting with Brown, she told him: "If you agree with Gordon that you're going to do this for one term, don't come back home." She added that she thought Tony was the "best person for the job and it is a damn difficult job".

On the Granita meeting

After Smith died, it is widely believed that Blair and Brown agreed a pact over dinner at Granita, a restaurant in Islington, north London, to the effect that Blair would take over as leader, then Brown would succeed him. However, Mrs Blair says that the deal was struck weeks before the meeting.

She says that her husband was "always very supportive of Gordon having his chance" and adds that if Brown had worked closer with Blair on his ideas, he may have been able to take over sooner.

"As for Granita, they did meet up there a day or two later. But by then it was all done and dusted. The Granita meeting was basically for them to talk about the announcement … My own reading of the myth - that is, that a 'deal' was done at Granita - was that Gordon didn't want to admit that he'd agreed anything without first discussing it with his people. At least from Tony's perspective, it was already agreed."

On Sarah Brown, the current prime minister's wife

In an interview with the Times discussing her memoir, Blair tries to dispel rumours that she does not like Brown's wife. She claims it is "not true" that the two don't get on, but admits they are not close. "To be honest, the extraordinary thing is we didn't really socialise and she only married Gordon at a time when we were already in No 10 and there isn't much time for us to see our old friends or even new ones … I think she's doing a fantastic job."

On the royals

Blair was often accused of snubbing the royal family or behaving inappropriately around them, but her autobiography reveals that, although she found the Queen easy to talk to, she struggled to connect with the rest of the family. "While the Queen is very approachable, I can't say the same about PrincessMargaret … At one point in that first year, Princess Anne came over and said something that included 'Mrs Blair'. 'Oh. Please call me Cherie,' I said. 'I'd rather not,' she replied. 'It's not the way I've been brought up.' 'What a shame,' I said." Her relationship with the princess "went rapidly downhill and never recovered".

On her miscarriage

After giving birth to her fourth child Leo in 2000, Blair become pregnant again two years later. She lost the child and has revealed that her husband announced the miscarriage to avert public panic over the invasion of Iraq.

She explains that after telling the prime minister what had happened, he called back with Alastair Campbell, his director of communications, also on the line. "There were implications in not going on holiday, they said. It was known that we were going to France. It was all to do with Iraq. There had been talk that we might be sending troops in. If we didn't go on holiday, the concern was that it would send out the wrong messages. They decided that the best thing was to tell the press that I'd had a miscarriage."

On Leo and the MMR jab

The controversy over the MMR jab was at its height at the same time that Leo was due to be inoculated. There was widespread fear that the injection could trigger autism in young children and public uptake of the jab was extremely low, despite officials insisting it was safe.

Blair never confirmed or denied that Leo had had the jab, but reveals that he had done so in her autobiography. "It's fair to say I was in two minds. I did get Leo vaccinated, not least because it's irresponsible not to - there's absolutely no doubt that the incidence of disease goes up if vaccinations go down - and he was given his MMR jab within the recommended timeframe. I was adamant, however, that I would not give the press chapter and verse. They had no right and it would set a bad precedent."